


Life is Changing

by buffymysavior



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Love Triangles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 17:29:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14049240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buffymysavior/pseuds/buffymysavior
Summary: The sun is the center of the universe. Riley is Lucas's sun. But the sun's light is dying slowly every day, just like Riley's light. Can Lucas restore the light in Riley before his whole world goes black?





	Life is Changing

_“Life is changing,” Riley sighed, “isn’t it?”_

_“Yes,” Maya replied. “But this never will.”_

Riley missed those days. The ones with her and Maya, alone at the bay window, worrying about a date with the boy she liked. Oh, those were the days. They had been children, ending their first year of middle school and about to enter their last. They didn’t know what would happen next and they were okay with that, as long as they could be with each other and take on the world together. Everything had seemed possible then. Now...not so much. Things had seemed absolutely, positively, impossible lately.

Riley sat on the left of Lucas, Maya on his right. She shifted in her seat, afraid of the unspoken words left between the three of them. The tension between them was clouding their minds, and no one said anything for fear of what would happen next.

She felt tired. Mainly of the huge mess that the three had found themselves in ever since they had gone to Texas. She was tired of Lucas not making a decision. She was tired of having to share the boy she loved with her best friend. She was tired of feeling guilty for not seeing her best friend had feelings for the guy she cared so much about. Riley was tired of feeling bad for sharing a smile with that same guy, but also having to constantly fight for his attention. Riley was tired of the strain this situation had put on their friendship and the happiness of all of her friends. She would let Maya and Lucas be happy together if she had the chance. She would step out again if need be, no matter how much it diminished the bright light inside her, no matter how much it killed her spirit. Most of all, though, Riley was tired of feeling hopeless. She had hope for a planet four billion miles away, yet she couldn’t bring herself to hope for the mess she was in. She couldn’t hope that everyone would get out of this unscathed. Someone was going to get hurt, it was inevitable. It was not a matter of if, but when. The bomb was slowly ticking, eating away at her soul and her very being, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Riley didn’t want to feel hopeless anymore. She fixed things. If she had one talent, it was fixing people’s problems and the people themselves. Maybe sometimes she overdid it, but her intentions were always pure. All she wanted was for that person to be happy, and she usually achieved that goal. But this time, Riley didn’t see how any of them could come out of this situation happy, especially since one of the girls getting hurt would hurt her best friend, and that would hurt Lucas as well.

Riley mustered up all of her courage to try and hope for this situation. This whole thing needed to be fixed, and who else could fix it but the one and only Riley Matthews? She could find a way out of this, she just needed to hope. Isn’t that what she’s been telling Maya all of this time? To hope and dream for things? Maybe all Riley needed to do was to follow her own advice.

Long after Lucas and Maya had gone, Riley sat at the bay window, trying to figure out a way to end this whole thing. After a while, Riley came to the conclusion that maybe this was bigger than her, and it would take the help of her friends to solve this problem. She sighed. She hated needing help. Riley didn’t want to worry them or involve them into this whole issue. It was asking too much of them, especially considering all of the support they had given her lately.

Suddenly a knock from her window shook her from her thoughts. Riley couldn’t get a good look at who it was; they had climbed down the fire escape as quickly as they had come up. She opened the bay window to reveal a blue envelope with the her name written on the front. She would know that slanted writing anywhere. Lucas had put this here for her.

Riley smiled at the color of the envelope. Blue. He loved wearing blue, and Riley had always suspected it to be his favorite color. She turned it over, flicking up the flap and taking out the contents. The fact that whatever he wrote had been written on notebook paper suggested that he had delivered a letter. What if this is the letter that told her that she wasn’t the girl he wanted? What if it was the one that proved that he was about to crush her best friend? Riley was afraid to read it, but the suspense soon overcame her and she turned the letter over.

_Dear Riley,_

_I know I haven’t made a decision. I should’ve made one by now, and the truth is, I have. I’ve known forever who I have feelings for. You probably hate me for it, for putting you and Maya through that, but please understand that I never wanted to hurt either of you. I don’t want this to be the end of our friendships, because I care too much about all of us to do that to each other._

_The thing is, Maya came to me after we left your house. We sat for a while and talked about everything. We realized that the only thing we ever do talk about, when we do talk, is you. We both care about you, and that’s one of the actual things we can have a conversation about._

_Maya told me that she had never been sure of her feelings to begin with. She’s been confused all of this time, and she said that finally talking about it made her understand what she really felt. She likes me as a brother. That’s why she teases me, it’s why she didn’t want me to get on that bull, it’s why she thought you saw me as a brother when the yearbook came out. Those feelings are hers, not yours. At least, I hope that they’re not yours. She told me that we don’t really talk about anything, which is true. We tease each other and care about the other, but platonically, like siblings. That’s another reason I waited so long to say who I really liked._

_If you open your door, we can talk about this. I want to tell you in person the rest of what I want to say. I really want to talk to you, especially since it’s something we haven’t been able to do in a while because of everything. If you don’t want to talk about this, just say so, and I’ll never say anything about it again. Just please, open the door, Riley._

_Love, Lucas._

She blushed a little at the words ‘Love, Lucas.’ The letter was folded back into its envelope, and Riley stood up. She was afraid of what was going to be said between the pair, and most of all, Riley was concerned about how her best friend in the entire universe was taking this.

Small steps were taken to get to the door, and when she reached it, she grasped the knob and turned it slowly, half-expecting to see empty space. Instead, she was met with Lucas Friar’s hopeful face. “Riley,” he breathed as she opened the door. He stepped inside the confines of her room, gesturing to the bay window. Riley agreed and sat down next to him, sitting close to him, their knees touching. She turned and met his smile. “Hi.”

“Hey.”

It was the simple words that always started out their conversations. Riley liked to believe that it was because they liked seeing each other and would rather say ‘hello’ than ‘goodbye’ to the other.

“Thank you for opening the door,” Lucas started out. Riley smiled.

“Always,” she replied. “Lucas-” Riley began, about to say that she believed that Maya had stepped back again.

“Riley, she didn’t step back if that’s what you’re thinking. She took everything pretty well, and she told me it would be okay for us to be together. She told me she wanted what we had. She liked the idea of someone like me treating her like that, not me myself, which makes sense. Maybe someday she’ll have what we have, maybe with Josh,” he smiled at Riley.

She sighed, very relieved that her best friend was not crushed by the realization. All she ever wanted for Maya was for her to be happy. “But what do we have? We never put a label on us before this whole triangle thing, we always were ‘unofficially together.’”

Lucas shook his head. “What we have is something real, Riley. It’s always been you, and it will always be you for me.”

Riley smiled like she used to, like the day she fell onto his lap on the subway, before she became that girl who was always tired and would fake her used-to-be-genuine smiles and general cheeriness. “Do you really mean that, Lucas? Because I’ve always known that you were the boy I wanted to be with ever since I fell onto your lap on the subway. I doubt that will ever change.”

He smiled at her the way they used to smile at each other all the time, before she had become tired, before he had supposedly had feelings for her best friend. “I do mean it, Riley. I mean that I never wanted to hurt you, that I never liked Maya more than a friend. I mean that you are a complete, absolute ray of sunshine, who lights up my day and makes me smile just by the mere thought of you. I also mean that I love you, and I love you, love you, not like a brother to a sister, but as in more than friends.”

Tears glistened in Riley’s eyes. Not the sad tears, the upset tears, the tired tears that she had shed so often over the past several months, but happy, joyful, hopeful tears. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that, Lucas Friar. I love you, Lucas, and _now_ I know how.”

Lucas grinned so wide that Riley thought that his smile must have been the size of Texas. “Remember how I told you that ‘my moment would be my moment?’” Riley nodded, staring into his sparkling green eyes.

He leaned into Riley, gently pulling her face close to his, and this kiss lasted longer than their first by a few seconds. The spark they had always felt with each other was present as always, and the two melted into each other’s arms.

Lucas pulled away first, but only to tell Riley something. “Well, this was my moment, and I’m so glad that I got to spend every second with you.”

Riley smiled. “So...wanna try that dating thing again?”

Lucas smirked and nodded. “Girlfriend?”

“Boyfriend,” Riley agreed happily.


End file.
